Summit Meetings
June 2004 was arguably of the most intense months of summitry in the history of transatlantic relations. The NATO summit followed on the D-Day's 60th anniversary celebrations in Normandy (France) on June 6; on the 30th G8 summit from June 8 until June 10 in Georgia (United States); and on the meetings with EU leaders in Dublin (Ireland) on June 24.
The 2004 Istanbul summit consisted of four main meetings, all held in the Istanbul Lutfi Kirdar Convention and Exhibition Center: the North Atlantic Council (NATO's highest decision-making body, attended by heads of state and government from each of the 26 Alliance member countries); the NATO-Russia Council (which met only at the level of foreign ministers, since Russian President Vladimir Putin stayed away, reflecting ongoing tension between NATO and Russia over NATO enlargement and the Adapted Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Treaty); the NATO-Ukraine Commission; and the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (46 countries including many former Eastern bloc and former Soviet states).
Besides these meetings, several visits and question sessions were made on June 26 and June 27, and several press conferences by heads of government of state or government were made after or in between the above mentioned meetings. Once the North Atlantic Council meeting on June 28 was concluded, a statement called the "Istanbul Declaration: Our security in a new era" was issued. In this statement the leaders summarized the main conclusions of the discussions.
Almost forgotten in coverage of the summit was that six new members from the former Warsaw Pact – Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania – joined NATO in March 2004 and were formally welcomed into the Alliance.
Read more about this topic: 2004 Istanbul Summit
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